Los Niños de Izanami: Confirmación
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter Welcome to our Head Quarters! Let's get to Decoding... The Labs As Daisuke noticed Sakura's nautious appearance, slightly worried about her, before he caught something out of the corner of his eye. What appeared to be the growing size of the police headquarters, Daisuke opened his eyes wide and gaped at the foreign sight. "Its...its...huge!" Daisuke said exasperatedly as he leaned slightly to his right as they circled towards the HQ of the Police Headquarters. It was indeed a massive place (and it was a wonder why Kenta complained). In a matter of fact, it was the third largest facility within Yūrei, only succeeded by the military headquarters and the king's castle. As the bird started its descent towards their destination towards the "garage", they could see it was a sort of massive pit where other birds were stationed at. There was a great deal of people regulating the birds, giving out instructions, following commands, and overall doing their jobs. It was a constant round of business and work. But the workers didn't mind - they liked their job, after all. In an elegant manner, the bird swooped down in its own "parking place" and landed for its driver and riders to get off. "This is larger than our Division's Barracks back in the Soul Society!" Daisuke exclaimed as he hopped off in a graceful, acrobatic manner, Kukkyona already getting off in his slow deliberate mannerism. "This certainly is impressive," Kukkyona said with approval as he looked around the large headquarters where he saw just a few moments ago many birds, and people regulating them like humans would regulate aircraft on aircraft carrier. Remaining silent, Sakura allowed herself to jump off of the bird and look around. The noise caused her to frown slightly, and the sound of many people talking was not appeasing to her, even if the area was massive enough for a comfortable effect. She placed a hand on her hip, her head turning around this way and that to look around. Based from what she heard, there were a slew of languages being spoken to each other in a considerably fluent manner, not all of them bothering to speaking with the same language. Some spoke English, some spoke Japanese, others spoke Spanish, and so on, and so on. Yet, they seemed to understand each other perfectly, adapting to each other's foreign vocal culture and exchanging it for their own. Multilingualism at its best. Kenta focused his attention on the aisle that separated both sides of the "hangar" to a set of double doors at the end. "I'll take you to the labs right away and contact the commander." He explained, making a gesture with his hand for them to follow him before walking down the aisle himself. "Of course," Kukkyona said somberly, walking in sync with the young officer, leaving Daisuke to follow whom briefly turned around with a bright smile and beckoned Sakura to follow, urging her to stick close to them as he followed his own father in step towards where Kenta would be taking them. Taking a deep breath and then exhaling, Sakura allowed herself to follow their trail, shifting her arms to fold them across her chest. Although her eyes were averted from Daisuke, her voice was clearly speaking to him. "You really shouldn't try and get so close to me." She said in disapproval, her tone solemn. "After all, we don't know each other that well." As they continued to walk, Daisuke heard her voice, but simply responding cheerfully in kind, "Ah! But that is why we invented something called, 'socialization,' where we can understand each other by talking to each other and being friendly to one another. That is, after all, where the term, 'Friends' come from you know?" The girl could've sworn she heard sarcasm within that tone of his. This made her narrow her eyes a little. "Well, the ones that invented that obviously never heard of the term sociopath, and apparently, neither have you." She retorted, a rather cold edge to her words. Inwardly, she was uncomfortable with the notion Daisuke was attempting to hand out to her. Instead of making her feel good, it was giving her the opposite effect, as if he was simply hurting her instead of helping her. But she had too much pride to allow him to see her discomfort. In her eyes, that would simply be discounted for as weakness. "Oh I don't know about that...I'm pretty sure you've just been out of practice and you need someone to cheer you up, talk to you, and hear you vent," Daisuke said still cheerfully, looking back with a edge of concern in his voice, noticing she was mentioning the term sociopath, not exactly something people want to mention when meeting someone new. Kukkyona noticed the areas were starting to get slightly more guarded and less authorized by the multingual core that made up most of the center of Yūrei's 'garage', and closer to the dimly lit sections, noticing a particulary odd shaped structure guarded with two distinguished guards in black cloaks, similar to the ones they met before. "Is that the laboratory, Kenta?" Kukkyona asked in a low tone, not wanting to interrupt the current conversation Daisuke was having with the ex-cultist behind them. "Yeah...." Sakura muttered, lowering her arms and placing a hand onto her hip. Her glare at Daiyaku did not subside, but it faded to something akin to annoyance. "Because I would just love to listen to a fuckin' chatterbox like you." "Yep. Hold on a second...." Pressing a hand against the doors in order to lean on them, Kenta clicked on his earpiece and lowered his head. "This is Sonoda to Setsuko."'' He reported, a "commander" tone back within his voice.'' "Setsuko here." Avaron's voice came once again on the other end of the frequency. "Meet me at the labs, if you're not pre-occupied. The two Seireitei Shinigami and a green agent are within my company, and we're about to decode pieces of information concerning the status of this city. Containment procedures in danger of being nullified." A pause on the other end. Then: "I understand. I'll be with you in a few minutes. Over and out." "That sounds like Officer Avaron...or is she more like your superior officer, Kenta?" Kukkyona asked cooly as he heard the extent of the conversation, waiting to enter the laboratory with his son and the socially challenged girl behind him. Daisuke just chuckled, scratching his chin as he sheepishly smiled, "Yeah, I guess I am kind of annoying to hang around at times. But," he added, looking truthfully at her, his eyes narrowing and his smile softened a bit, as he spoke softly, "I swore an oath to my friend...that I'd protect anyone that was precious to me, even if they didn't want to be protected," as he said this, his headband uncannyily shined a glimmer, showing the Kanji words 'Remember the Mourning,' before her eyes. For a moment, her eyes widened, and the scowl faded from her face. The expression faded as her attention fell to the headband that he wore. It briefly distracted her from the words that he spoke. It was only three words, and yet it was such a meaningful phrase. To think that such complexity could come out of something so simple on the outside was a rather amazing trait within people, but it was a feat to think such things and be accurately right about them. Had it been another, it would've put a rack in the metallic walls that were built up within the conscience, the first step to opening up. But she was not such a person. She grit her teeth briefly, narrowing her eyes in what seemed like a display of anger. Her face flushed a moderate red, the feelings clear on her face. It lasted only for a brief second before she jerked her head away from Daisuke, closing her eyes. "Don't say wierd shit like that all of a sudden!" She scolded him. After eyeing the two for a moment, Kenta once again set his sights on Kukkyona and smiled a little himself. "Naturally. She's the backbone of the police force, the highest power within law enforcement. I've had the luckiness of having her as a personal partner on missions. She may be a bit outward in nature.... but in the end, she gets the job done." "She sounds like a remarkable woman. I'm glad she was the welcoming commitee we had when we entered, otherwise, things with your subordinates might've turned out for the worst for all of us," Kukkyona spoke plainly, first with respect and admiration, then with simple matter-of-fact tone in his voice. Daisuke saw the change of reactions before his eyes, knowing she felt 'something' for people somewhere in herself, behind that very rocky and hardheaded exterior. However, it didn't seem like she would open up to him overnight, but he still felt a little bit sad she still didn't talk to him more openly. With a sigh, Daisuke turned around as he finished speaking, "you'll get used to it. I'm a true poet...at least that's how I was teased about," Daisuke added in a joking tone, turning his head back with a wide grin and winked at her, showing his mostly relaxed nature unfold to her. Before Sakura could respond, however... "Yeah, she sounds like a real peach, don't she?" Avaron's voice sounded right behind the group, particularly behind Daisuke. Kenta's eyes widened slightly, and his body stiffened at the sight of her as she gave a friendly pat to Daisuke's back before folding her arms across her chest. Sakura herself gave a raise of the eyebrow at the other orange-haired woman's sudden appearance, but decided to remain silent and out of the conversation for the time being, now that her own personal talk with Daisuke was "broken" temporarily. "Sorry. When I said a few minutes.... I meant several seconds." She apologized, a small smirk on her face. Kenta nodded in respect. "Glad you could make it." He turned back towards the door, bending over a little to look over a passcode lock on the door itself. Letting his fingers do the work, he typed in the code quickly, and Sakura couldn't help but notice how quickly his fingers were moving. It seemed to be a long passcode, but Kenta was able to enter it within seconds and opened the door, allowing them to step inside. Daisuke felt himself stiffen, almost yelp at being surprised. He turned around, a slight blush on his face as he waved his arms and his mouth agape in ecstatic shock, "How-did-you-do-that?! I-didn't-see-you-com...I mean...," he said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his neck, chuckling as he corrected himself, "ahem...I mean, nice to see you, Avaron." Kukkyona let out a mental roll of the eyes, issuing a low sigh of resignation, hearing Daisuke act his embarassing typical self, but his eyes followed the fast movements of Kenta's fingers pressing the codes into the console. Despite its fast movements, he was quickly able to memorize the code in case of future use if ever needing it later. He entered behind him, ushering the others to follow without motioning or speaking, as his mere presence began to leave it was like a cloud letting the sun shine back onto the earth below...more or less it was to Daisuke, as he turned to follow, making sure to be nearly in sync to Avaron's steps, supressing the urge to stare at her dazzling face. The First Moves of Chess Avaron, meanwhile, had turned her attention to Kenta, as he was speaking to the group in general. "We have a scanner in the back, perfect for that little capsule of yours, elder." He explained, raising his hand to point in the direction he was going. "I can just set it up to identify the type of material you have, you can place it in and--" "Stop right there." Avaron interrupted with a slightly stern tone, jerking a finger in front of his face in order to shut him up, earning a rather surprised look from him. "I am not putting you in a position to touch anything even remotely hooked up to the main network." He cocked an eyebrow in confusion and shock. "Why?" He asked, his voice whispery from the disbelief he was feeling. "After that little stunt you pulled with your boys? I think that's reason enough." "Wha--" The young officer cut himself off, now in shock and displeasure at her choice of words. "Y....you said you wouldn't bring that up again...!" He hissed in complaint. However, Avaron looked over at him to pass a falsely sweet smile at him. "Oh, right, I did...." She replied innocently. "But you forgot to make me pinky swear to it." "Oh, for the love of...." Kenta slapped a hand to his face in exasperation, lowering his head in slight embarrassment. Kukkyona looked left to Kenta's shocked and displeased face during the ordeal, and back to Avaron's stern, sarcastic appearance to his right. He then looked straight ahead as he was parallel to the two of them, Daisuke standing quite perplexed next to Avaron, wondering what she meant by, 'his boys,' knitting his brows down as he tried to think what it meant...or forget about it. "Is this going to be a problem?" Kukkyona looked over to both Kenta and Avaron, wondering if this would impede their rate of finishing the decoding of his information capsule. "....no." Kenta muttered, a bit sourly. "The captain's able to set up the system herself, pretty much any one who can understand computers can...." "Then we leave at your word then, Captain Avaron," Kukkyona politely nodded his head towards Avaron with a sign of respect in his voice, also unintentionally cutting off anything else Kenta would have muttered under his breath. It was here that they managed to stop in front of the machine serving as the scanner. It was considerably wide, its height a little over half the size of Kenta himself. It looked quite like a scanner one would find within the world of the living, except there were two major differences. One was the small "desk" that came out from the side which supported a laptop with a DOS window on it. On the other side, there was a sort of holder which looked like two metallic cup holders facing each other with a certain amount of space between them. What connected the holders was a beam of light connecting them. Avaron took her spot at the laptop, fingers moving to type in and begin the process. "All right...." She muttered. "All you have to do is slip in the capsule within that light holder. The light will act like a sort of tractor beam and hold it up while the scanning process begins." Kukkyona produced the cereal sized capsule delicately in between his fingers, showing the intricately designed device between his thumb and forefinger, the stream of data passed the nearly microspopic digital display on the capsule. He moved his hand forward and slipped into the said light holder, watching suck it in, as said like a tractor beam, and the machine began scanning the data within the device... Daisuke meanwhile looked over to Avaron, trying to see what she would do with the device next, watching her every movement as she preformed her work over the foreign modern-looking device with effortless control and understanding. He thought her soft hands looked nice moving so fast along all those controls and keys... "Congratulations, Captain. You seem to have nagged yourself a fish." Kenta was the first one to notice Daisuke's stare at Avaron. He closed his eyes and shook his head in a slight, sage manner. But he didn't allow himself to say anything, for it would've just embarrassed the poor man. He drifted his attention towards his superior officer as she watched the DOS window, typing occasionally and otherwise allowing data to appear within at a rapid rate. Sakura also noticed. Cocking an eyebrow slightly, she put on a small smirk at Daisuke. His own feelings couldn't have been any more obvious at that moment, and it amused her greatly. But she too didn't say anything, placing a hand on her hip and idly standing. As the data appeared, Daisuke turned his eyes away in order to keep himself from staring too long, but alas, someone already noticed his gaze. He turned around to strike up a conversation with Sakura, but noticed her what could be seen as a slight smirk with a sublte cocking of the eyebrow, causing him to upraise an eyebrow in return. "What? Do I got something in my hair?" he joked, but was inwardly nervous, almost suspecting she saw him staring at Avaron...but that wasn't possiblely conceived in his thoughts. Or was it? As the data began to be fully open, a stream of encrypted letters appeared over the numbers, a series of blanks over each paragraph of information with the cursor over the first of dozens, the information if written down, would've spanned at least 200 pages worth of detailed intel. "Well, it looks like the 12th Division knew what they were doing when they made this...." Avaron said lightly, fingers once again moving over the keys and typing. "The security level placed on it's clearly the result of a professional." She looked over the scren carefully. "Now, set "Meanie" to 5, identify the program type...." The last bit of wording was to herself. Sakura, deciding for his sake to keep her voice low, allowed her smirk to become more knowing. "Gee, I don't think that's for someone like me to tell you. Why don't you ask your little crush over there?" She asked tauntingly. Kukkyona slightly upraised his brow at the term 'meanie' she just used, but shrugged it off mentally, producing a single sheet of passwords both in numerical nature and as well as in different phrases, words, even poems, "Captain Kaze Sasayaki is known for his unique sense of encrypting. No one in his entire Division, not even the Stealth Force, can fully grasp the method behind the madness of his codes and passwords," Kukkyona explained as Avaron would read the strange list of passwords and pass-phrases. Daisuke did almost full-on blush as she mentioned 'crush', then looked back at Avaron to see she hadn't heard, sighing lowly with relief, then turning back, a look of desperation and caution crossed his face as he raised his left hand to make a 'quiet' gesture to his lips, "Don't say a word of this and I won't tease you about your boyish appearance, okay?" "Yeah, yeah...." Sakura rolled her eyes in exasperation, looking back over towards Avaron as she spoke with Kukkyōna. "No kidding...." The female officer muttered. "Attempting to hack this manually would be next to impossible, and it would probably kill somebody if they stressed themselves thinking about it. However, it was a good thing the boys I managed to prepare for this way ahead of time." Smacking the enter key with her index finger, she turned her attention to the light holding the capsule within. It turned from a light blue to a bright green, with a series of holographic numbers running through the light. She raised herself up from the screen, placing her hands on her hips and looking on in a content look. "In a minute or two, our information will be decoded and processed, courtesy of my personal program. The only problem is that afterwhich....." The content look faded, and she let out an aggravated sigh - in conjunction with Kenta's own. "....the military's going to be involved in this case." Kenta summarized dejectedly. "Yep." The depressed manner in which Avaron and Kenta was hanging her head was comical, a sweatdrop forming on the back of their heads. Kukkyona looked at Avaron, then back at Kenta over his shoulder, before returning his gaze, answering in a almost tone, "You and the military still have a tense relationship I see..." "Will this cause you problems?" Daisuke asked, trying to distract himself from Sakura's teasing of his own emotional predicament with Avaron, as he too looked back and forth from the two, sweatdropping himself at seeing them act in such a comical fashion that was so unlike their previously shown professional mannerism. Avaron sighed, once again focusing her eyes onto the screen. "Well, no..." She admitted. "Matter of fact, this will benefit us more than anything else. It's just..." "The soldiers under the military have a habit of belittling law enforcement, ever since the beginning of the old General's rule." Kenta explained, walking past Kukkyōna in order to stand beside her and get a better view of the screen. "They shoot, in a matter of speaking, we shoot back, and we've got ourselves competition in order to gain His Majesty's respect." "Damian Seken?! I've heard of him...his skill has made him infamous to the Soul Society's Soul Reapers, a tactician of amazing skill and power, his prowess is often the topic of folklore for the more novice Soul Reapers," Kukkyona stated with a hint of surprise and admiration, though he contained his cool composure as he explained the knowledge of his exploits in the Soul Society. "Why do you loathe the competition? Its a great way to improve your own skills while building up a healthy relationship with your divisions, or moreover, that's how the 13 Court Guard Squads work anyways," Daisuke said with a confused, yet enthusiastic tone, smiling at both Avaron and Kenta, curious why they dreaded the whole competitive predicament they were in, he even winked back at Sakura, forgetting the whole earlier near-embarassment with his musings. "Healthy?" Avaron turned her gaze towards him with a look of astonishment. "As if....the closest thing to healthy would be us pointing our guns at each other and not pulling the trigger. That.... or pulling the trigger and happening to have empty clips." Sakura merely huffed, turning away from Daisuke. However, as Avaron turned back towards the screen, she turned her head back towards him with a cocked eyebrow. "So...." She stated casually, the smirk returning. She still made sure to keep her voice low in order for Avaron to not hear them. "When you plan on telling her?" "As I expected," Kukkyona said solemnly, expecting the tense relationship to still be harbored even after the infamous Damian Seken's death. He looked over to inspect the screen, expecting her acclaimed 'state-of-the-art' scanner to be finished by now... Daisuke looked over and whispered harshly, "Tell her what, pra tell?! I just think she's an attractive woman...err, I mean charismatically, yes, yes that's what I mean. What's it to you anyways? I thought you didn't care about my feelings?" He said, trying to derail her line of questioning as he looked back at her from what used to be a flushed nervous expression, to a humored smirking expression, wondering why she would bother trying to goad or tease him in this way. "Because I find it to be funny, seeing people getting all flustered just because they find someone attractive...." Sakura answered smoothly, raising one of her hands up briefly. Then, she lightly smacked him in the center of his chest with the back of her hand. "So lighten up, shit-face. It was a joke." Sure enough... The numbers faded away from the light, and the green light turned back to its light blue color. "And~ we are done!" Avaron said confidently, once again leaning over the table to display the results. "Even with Meanie, cracking this particular set of codes proved to be a nuisance, but it's done. All of the data's decoded, but..." She paused for a moment. "There's a ridiculous amount of information here, a little over two hundred pages worth. Not exactly a printer-friendly amount...." "Only downside of this particular device is that it records information of the particular observer's or partaker of the capsule if you will, into specific detail as well over the last 72 hours, which was the gap of time we lost contact with them as they exited out of contact. Its relatively a new device that's only been regulated within the Deep Cover Ops for about 6 months, they're still working out the kinks in its practicality," Kukkyona explained matter-of-factly, not really deterred or annoyed about the length of information they have to decode, considering he'd had to endure more than often predicaments involving patience. It came at the price of being the head of a Noble Family, and all the many crisises or drama he has to endure on a near day to day basis, even moreso including his Captain duties. "Thanks...I'm glad you have a sense of humor after all," Daisuke said with a slightly sarcastic attitude, before rolling his eyes at her after sticking his tongue out at her, turning his back on her as he crossed his arms, now feeling quite irked by the irritating girl. "Over two hundred pages and we have to read through all of them...." Avaron slowly lowered her head, letting out a tired breath. "I can already feel the headaches." She raised her head, a contemplative look on her features. "Well, I guess we're going to have a lot of reading to do for the next few days, might as well start as soon as possible. Every second counts concerning the situation...." She turned her body, straightening up to face the group in entire, save for Kenta. "In the meantime, why don't you two head back and go about with your regular activities? I'm sure waiting here for possibly up to a week would be out of your conscience." "I appreciate the offer, but I must decline. Is there quarters that you may allow use for myself or my son, if he wishes it? I want to be on site, and nearby in the slightest change of the information that you uncover," Kukkyona stated plainly and seriously, putting his arms across each other as he looked Avaron dead in the eyes to wait for an answer. Daisuke held his head in a downcast manner, muttering, "I really liked that suite," before he raised his head, saying, "I'm staying wherever my father is staying. It would be unfitting as a future Noble Head to lounge around while the current Head resides in less acommadating of retire." Avaron's frown turned slightly sympathetic, as with her raise of the eyebrow. "Sorry, but that can't be done...." She answered, emphasizing with a shake of her head. "HQ only permits the ones on-duty to stay on base. You can find a hotel close to here if you want, but that's the best I can give you." However, this sympathetic look immediately turned to one of slightly exasperated and questioning look when Sakura spoke up. "Yeah, give the police some space to work...." She said in annoyance. "Can't exactly concentrate with you people breathing down their fucking necks all the time...." "I can tell how much you want them to be as far away from YOU as possible," Daisuke quipped, knowing she did cause a crisis just only less than an hour ago with the police, and he could imagine if she didn't like being in a police station. "That is fine," Kukkyona stated, not in the least perturbed for being rejected to stay, unfolding his arms, before he said, "but I'd like a form of communication for updates on your progress. It IS Seireitei information you're holding onto, despite your connection in it, so I'd appreciate some cooperation between us, if possible." "Yūrei and the Soul Society of Japan didn't make that treaty just to keep each other in the dark." Avaron reminded him, putting on an assuring smile. "We do the best we can as the situation allows it. Don't worry - we'll keep you updated." Taking a few steps aside from the scanner, she stood in front of a cabinet and pulled open one of its drawers. She reached inside, pulling out and tossing something small to Kukkyōna. It was a communicator, the same one that the police officers themselves used. "Just make sure to keep that with you at all times, and we'll be just fine." After nodding to her statements, he deftly caught it with his left hand, slightly rubbing his thumb over the communication device thrown to him. He looked back Avaron, bowing his head reverantly before he spoke calmly, "I wish for the speed to finish this matter and leave it behind us. Daisuke, Sakura, come," Kukkyona said in a swift, commanding voice, though it wasn't terse or rough, just to the point. Daisuke looked up, and nodded to his father, before nodding to Sakura saying, "Let's go. I'm pretty sure you don't have a place as nice as ours to stay for the night, so I'd suggest coming with," he said with a smile, reassuring her that as much as their relationship was rocky, he wanted to invite her with a decent place to stay. "Just a moment." Before Sakura could open up her mouth to retort to the statement, Kenta allowed himself to speak up and walk towards the group in general. "Sakura will meet up with you later. I need to speak to her in private." It was a rather firm tone, one that was not interested in any say otherwise. Sakura got the idea quickly, scowling and shaking her head in disapproval. But she turned around and walked off towards the exit, Kenta right behind her. Avaron herself could only stare in slight surprise at the sudden move Kenta had made, but said nothing as the two walked off and exited the room. "Uh okay...later I guess," he said towards Sakura and Kenta as they walked off, furrowing his brows in a perplexed expression, turning towards Avaron smiling softly back, saying, "see you later, Avaron," before leaving in sync with his father, who was not in the least deterred from the situation, taking everything in stride as they departed from the labs they entered. "What do you think that was about? Do you think Kenta is actually going to interrogate her?" Daisuke asked his father worriedly, often thinking his father perceived everything the clearest out of anybody he knew. Kukkyōna just stayed silent for awhile as they reentered the 'garage' of parked birds, heading towards the area where the Japanese-speaking people were, ordering someone to get a 'transport' for them quickly back to the hotel, before he got a understanding nod and went to secure one for them. He turned over, crossing his arms as he looked at his son with a unreadable expression on his face, too calm to be seen anything other than utter peace. "You worry about the girl for nothing. She is in the hands of a honest and skilled young man of high ranking status in this city. Not to mention his superior happens to be one of the few people outside the Seireitei I respect for good reason, so you need not to worry about her," he said, totally understanding despite any denying his son was about to do. "I am not worried about her! She's totally unreasonable, not to mention she hit me when I tried to ask-, okay so I did grab her and she did tell me to colorfully to leave her alone...and I tried to be nice to her this entire time...and, ugh! Forget it," Daisuke fumed and sighed, his face hot and flushed and his arms crossed over each other, and his brows knit as he kept fussing over her. He'd rather think about the firm, commanding, yet beautiful and graceful Avaron, but his mind and heart consistantly dragged back to Sakura. Why, he asked himself, 'why do I care about some ex-cultist who wouldn't give the time of day for me helping her up from the ground she tripped on when a perfectly fine looking and commanding woman would be better to spend time with? Ugh my head,' Daisuke caressed his temples as he thought about it too hard, a bird now suddenly brought to bear besides the two Hayates. Kukkyōna took a agile leap up to the nearest part of the back, then Daisuke vaulted up as well, knowing he'd have to wait for an answer again as the bird took off as fast as when they first rode it, but this time, a much bumpier ride was under way for them. Category:Fanfiction Category:Bleach: The Children of Izanami